City watch. Landmarks.

59th St. Bridge Gets A Lift

Historic Landmark Faithfully Restored

The 40,000 motorists who travel South Lake Shore Drive have probably noticed in recent months the appearance of some rather ornate light posts at 59th Street.

Few of those drivers would recognize the little bridge over the entry to the 59th Street harbor as a historical structure. But Stan Kaderbek, deputy commissioner of the city Department of Transportation and chief engineer of the Bureau of Bridges, saw the span as a city treasure.

In many urban areas, when an old worn-out bridge needs replacement, a standardized interstate-highway-style span is used. These off-the-shelf models have become ubiquitous, with their tubular steel guard rails, poured-concrete sidewalls and "Jersey wall" lane dividers.

Critics call it the homogenization of the bridge environment.

But the City of Chicago, with its huge inventory of bridges from bygone days when beauty still mattered, has embarked on another approach.

The Bureau of Bridges has a program to restore and upgrade some of the old bridges that need structural repairs. The 59th Street bridge, built for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, is the latest addition.

"It is a bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places," Kaderbek said.

Decades of pounding traffic had taken its toll. Last year when the city had to rebuild the structure it chose to restore it to the way it was when the south lakefront from 56th Street to 67th Street was home to Chicago's first World's Fair.

"Because of its historic significance we agreed to restore it historically," Kaderbek said. "We worked with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and their staff in the restoration."

Delving into archival records of the city, the original plans, drawings and photographs of the bridge were located. From these, the architectural firm Hasbrouck, Peterson, Zimoch, Sirirattumrong drew plans for the restoration.

"We marked every individual stone," Kaderbek said. "And documented those that had to be replaced. The historic restoration would be right down to putting back the lights that use to be there."

It is those light standards that are now likely to catch the eye of passing motorists.

The four beautifully designed poles were specially crafted. "We worked closely with the fabricators of the poles," Kaderbek said. "We had the historical photos and documentation of what the originals looked like and we had the Robinson Iron Works, in Alexander City, Ala., make the pattern for us.

"We believe that they are a faithful representation of the way they looked back in 1893."

Each of the posts has an ornamental base and is topped with a circular crown that originally held an arc light; two arms extending from the post, which once held incandescent lamps, now have modern bulbs.

The original poles were taken down decades ago, Kaderbek said.

The entire 59th Street project cost about $8 million, Kaderbek said. It too was funded with federal and state money.

The project was expanded to clean up and restore the section of Jackson Park just northeast of the bridge. "That area along the lake had become very run-down, we resodded and rebuilt the revetments," Kaderbek said.

The restored park area is reached from the sidewalk of Lake Shore Drive by walking down a small but impressive stairway.

Even though the 59th Street bridge was designated a historic structure it would have been possible to replace it altogether, Kaderbek said.

"We would have had to justify our reasons for destroying it, there likely would have been hearings," he said. "We could have built a plain vanilla bridge. It would have been cheaper to do the simpler thing. It always is.